- A village in South Africa has banned non-white residents in an attempt to escape what they call the escalating crime wave that is engulfing the country. Only people of Afrikaner roots are welcome in the town that openly cherishes the old apartheid system, causing rage elsewhere in South Africa.
Orania is a village of less than 700 inhabitants in South Africa's Northern Cape Province, located at the border of the Free State. It was built on private land at the beginning of the 1990s and founded as a nucleus for a new Afrikaner state by Carel Boshoff, a grandson of ex-Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd - the architect of South Africa's apartheid system.
The village of Orania, in the middle of the Karoo desert, is now a self-proclaimed Afrikaner homeland and follows the practices of strict racial segregation that were familiar under apartheid.
Most people in South Africa however see the village as an anachronism and some politicians have openly mocked the residents' claim that the Afrikaner population is a dying breed that can only be preserved by retreating to a reservation. In fact over 60 percent of South Africa's 6 million whites are of Afrikaner descent.
The locals, however, remain unabashed, and claim that the racial restrictions are simply measures to protect against crime. Pieter Grobelaar, the village's tourism manager, says that gun violence in the cities has driven local people to take these drastic measures.
- I am sick of it and I don't want to be paying high insurance premiums for the rest of my life, he says, according to the UK-based Local Government International Bureau (LGIB). Mr Grobelaar points out that since the end of apartheid in 1992, 1,500 white farmers have been murdered, arguing "we cannot stem the tide but we are determined to preserve our language and culture."
The village is now the centre of a huge political row, a problem not helped by the media, "which regularly provokes conflict by bussing in black people from outlying towns and villages," LGIB reports. Earlier attempts of the controversial settlement to stay out of the media limelight have failed.
Although the black majority people of South Africa are technically able to shop in the village, the locals are not particularly welcoming. Indeed, when the black mayor of a neighbouring village came to visit recently, an Afrikaner farmer driving a tractor chased him out of the village.
Practically, though, people of black skin are not welcome in Orania. The ideology is the one of apartheid's "homelands" or "Bantustans", where communities based on ethnic origin were concentrated in own "states" and given "independence" - this time, the "state" is for whites only. In accordance with this not even black labourers need to apply for jobs here.
The Orania community of 650 Afrikaners demands a status of autonomy and self-determination from the South African government, with the intention of proclaiming an Afrikaner state in the near future. A flag of the nation already exists, in addition to a map showing plans of territorial expansion towards the Atlantic coast.
The locals ignore all changes that have happened in South Africa since the country's majority came to power one decade ago. Afrikaner holidays are celebrated, no one participates in the national elections of South Africa but they vote in their own elections. Only national taxes are paid, but reluctantly.
The Pretoria government has made several peaceful attempts to communicate with the Orania community and have it playing by national rules. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has sent envoys to Orania on several occasions, but to no avail. Even a visit from Nelson Mandela has failed to reduce tensions
These peaceful attempts may now be over as there are now worries that white supremacist terrorists are finding shelter in the village. These terrorists have already organised several attacks on South African civilians and have plotted to overthrow the majority government of the country. A link to Orania, if found by South African police, may cause tougher action on the community.
- The situation looks to be getting worse and the pleas of the locals that they are merely fleeing the crime epidemic are starting to wear thin, LGIB reports. The statue dedicated to ex-Prime Minister Verwoerd (1901-1966) - the original architect of apartheid - overlooking the town too clearly demonstrates where the Afrikaner community finds its ideology.
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